It's nine months later. Rhona's dead and gone, but she cured the world. America is a Utopian paradise being ruled from St. Louis. Our goal is to get the cure to the world, but China is a big evil beast that wants to conquer all of its neighbors by strangling distribution of the cure so that the "Scott Effect" can't take hold (The "Scott Effect" is made-up-on-the-spot BS where X people have to receive the cure in order for it to spread otherwise it dies out...and so do the people.)

Japan is in dire straits. Our heroes, though, are really busy saving Vietnam. Until a nightclub gets shot up (I do see why they preempted this episode) and ALL of the executive staff from the ship are kidnapped.

Meanwhile, our captain guy and a few others are on foot and hiding out deep in the wilds of China where they plan to seek revenge.

So, remember, 5 billion people have died over the course of a chaotic and lawless six months. Yet all of the nations are still the same -- the map's entirely unchanged. Politics are the same, and there are state dinners where everyone acts like it's a normal day. Cell phones have full, worldwide coverage, the internet is working, everyone has power and TV and radio. Families are having picnics in the park and people are driving brand new cars around. The armed forces of China and the US are fully staffed. We have an active Pacific fleet that's pirate hunting and delivering the cure to everyone.

So the show is no longer an apocalypse show -- or even about "the last ship." It's a procedural 24-style political drama. Nor does anyone seem upset that 5 billion people died. (Though, of course, this is the show that tried to make the murder of the man directly responsible for killing those 5 billion a questionable action that resulted in a trial.)

So this is a mistake... A hard book to capture, and the show will be under the shadow of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise of movies/tv shows/video games. But...

Quote

The network hasn’t exactly found an original ratings hit as of yet, but WGN America is quickly becoming a home for excellent shows — and now they’re prepping a fascinating new sci-fi project.

Deadline reports Watchmen alum Matthew Goode has signed on to star in a pilot based on the 1971 novella Roadside Picnic, written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. The story is set in a near-future where aliens have long since left, as mankind tries to make sense of the mysteries they’ve left behind. It will follow a man named Red (played by Goode), a “stalker” who makes a living scavenging through the abandoned alien cities.

His character is described as an “enigmatic, blue-collar contradiction,” capable of both quiet intelligence and ruthlessness from one moment to the next. Rounding out the supporting cast, Red has a wife and daughter (both yet to be cast) — though his daughter, Marie, is shunned in their society because she was on the site of a alien visitation. It’s an interesting pitch, and Goode certainly seems like an interesting choice for the role.

The pilot was written Jack Paglen (Transcendence), with Game Of Thrones alum Alan Taylor signed on to direct. Veteran producer Neal Moritz (I Am Legend, Furious 7) is also involved behind the scenes.

The series is in development now, with a pilot commissioned. We’ll keep you posted as things progress.

Well The Strain is back. And it was actually okay this time around. The apocalypse is happening and everybody's on board with fighting it. Eph is still annoying, but now he's also suicidal, so that helps. There's more of a sense of positioning pieces for a long haul, which is appreciated. Last season was one, long, annoying slog.

So now that The Last Ship has dropped its ridiculous and jingoistic war with China storyline it's good again! America has fallen to a coup led by Elizabeth Rohm and her amazing tits. Our heroes must now root out this evil and reform the United State! Yay!

Oddly, post-Coup America is more apocalyptic than anything we've yet seen in the series (which continues to generally ignore the idea that 70% of the world population died just about six months prior to the show's current timeline).

It's engaging! Last night they piloted a Chinese destroyer on cruise control into San Diego harbor and blew it up and then hid their destroyer behind the smoke so that the entire named cast could conduct a suicide mission leaving only noncoms in charge of the ship! They even stopped a train on a dime one inch from charges on the track!

What really ties the season together is the Japanese vampire storyline. And the frequent raids on the Chinese imperial palace where, apparently, anyone can just walk in and threaten the all-powerful dictator-for-life who's orchestrating the genocide of all non-Chinese Asians in the most obvious ways possible and yet they all still blame the Americans.

Wait till you get to the sudden shift where the Chinese storyline isn't important anymore, leading up to Sunday's episode where they magically produce a Chinese destroyer decoy 6000 miles from where we last saw it.

Oh, oh! And the people who want to be slaves because they're starving. So they refuse to be freed instead of, you know, revolting against the paramilitary force that doesn't actually want to be there and would clearly hesitate to fight back. Of course, we just need that so we can get some grandstanding about how wonderful America can be! Even though you get this exchange:

The show has been consistently brilliant -- and consistently flawed -- but the finale arc was really just damn good TV all around. It felt like we took a little bit too long to get here, and that it wasn't exactly mapped out to begin with, but the nature of the show is that retconning is not only allowed, it's inevitable. The zillions of splintered timelines in play by the time we get to the showdown ultimately gives the writers the power to do absolutely anything they want.

And they run with it in all the right ways. The ending seems very clean, but it's up to you. On the surface it's a happily ever after ending... But, then, the very last scene pretty clearly says: Nope. It was all for nothing. They failed. And, from there, lies another question: Failure might not actually be a bad thing, which some of the characters were leaning towards during the showdown with the Big Bads.

Fascinating, really. The sort of show I plan to return to and watch again some day without year long breaks between seasons.